Sir Samuel White Baker (8 June 1821 – 30 December 1893)
A Newton Abbot resident and discoverer of Lake Albert as an explorer of the Nile and interior of central Africa.
Together with his wife Florence, Baker retired to Sandford Orleigh in 1874.
He would describe the view looking down the Teign Estuary as one which reminded him of The Nile.
The house, built by industrialist George Templer in the 1830s, featured a chimney overmantel compiled of several historic oak carvings.
With the property redeveloped into flats the Sandford Orleigh Screen, as the chimney piece is known, is now housed in Newton Abbot Town and GWR Museum.
The Samuel Baker Geocache Series will feature 12 items of historic interest to Newton Abbot and the surrounding communities.
A 13th event cache on December 11 will complete The Baker’s Dozen.
The Newton Bank Note
Five Pound Note 1841
This ‘Newton Bank Five Pound Note’, signed by Nicholas Baker, was issued on the 20th March 1841 - just before the bank owners Messrs. Wise, Farwell, Baker and Bentall, ran out of money.
The private bank was established in 1817, in Bank Street, but by 1841 it had more debts than income. The Partners had to sell their assets to pay their creditors. Ayshford Wise had to sell Forde House. The sale details included 'valuable and splendid furniture... two family carriages... minerals and fossils'. After creditors were finally paid out in 1842, Ayshford Wise moved to Staffordshire and died in 1847. The sorry business of assigning money to the creditors fell to Francis Hernaman and John Vicary of Newton Abbot.
he holes in the centre of the note marked that it was cancelled. Newton Bank was taken over by Capital and Countries Bank in 1891 which was then in turn taken over by Lloyds bank in 1918.
This note is considerably larger than our modern day notes and seems to be for a specific person rather than to simply ‘the bearer.’ Notes in the 1800’s were seen more like a postal order or cheque than the notes which we use today.
I was hoping to place this cache slightly closer to the flurry of banks in Newton Abbot but sadly there are already other caches located within the allowed distance hence why it is on a side street. There is on-street parking with meters or the various town car parks (the parking is free on Sundays and on the street after 5pm). Bear in mind that the multi storey car park closes at 6.00pm and is closed on Sundays - I'd hate for you to get locked in!